Free An Absence of Principal by Jimmy Patterson Page B

“A little counseling and a few weeks separation and we should be fine.” Ben’s eyes darted around the room, down to his lap, and over Martin’s shoulder. He did all he could to avoid prolonged eye contact with the superintendent.
    “That’s not the impression I get, Ben,” Martin said. “We can’t be having our elementary school principals putting themselves in, shall we say, compromising situations. You and your mistress get that straight, you understand?”
    “Yes.”
    “Until you do, and until I am convinced that you have, I have no choice but to place you on administrative probation.” Martin said.
    “What exactly is administrative probation?”
    “Just understand, Ben, that I am aware of some serious conduct violations. At this stage, that knowledge is between you and me and the school board. It will be discussed in executive session, but for now, it will be kept quiet. If you don’t straighten this out fast, I’m afraid this will get a bit more complicated. I want it done and over. Principals who are sleeping around on their wives can’t be walking around 5-and 6-year olds. It’s bad form. And personally just between me and you, that sort of conduct makes me sick. Fix it. And do it now.”
    “Yes, sir,” Ben said.
    Great, Ben thought when he had escaped into the hallway. Angela’s bulldog attorney had put him in his place. She must be serious. With every passing day Ben didn’t know how he could feel any lower. A little drink ought to calm his nerves.

“You have a minute?” the question came from Aaron Sanchez, the information technology specialist for Midland ISD. Doggett had left the building by the time Sanchez had stuck his head into Martin’s office.
    “Come in, Aaron,” Martin said. “How can I help you?”
    “We may have a situation,” Sanchez said.
    “Like I need another one,” Martin said. “What’s up?”
    “I just finished the year-end computer usage logs for each of our campuses. Aside from the high incident of Facebook visits among a lot of our students and teachers, believe it or not, there was no notable misuse of equipment on our secondary campuses — and by that I mean no surfing of porn sites by either faculty or students — that I could detect. There was, however, what appears to be an inordinate amount of time spent at a number of online gaming sites at one particular campus.”
    “What kind of online gaming sites?” Martin asked.
    “Casinos. Gambling. Black Jack, poker, roulette, slots, that kind of stuff,” Sanchez reported.
    “How much misuse?”
    “Between September of last year and end of term last month, fifty hours, 35 minutes,” Sanchez said.
    “Were you able to pinpoint who might have this little problem?” Martin asked. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to know.
    “I can’t say for sure, Mr. Martin, no. But the originating IP address is from the unit inside an administrative office at Stephen F. Austin Elementary,” Sanchez said.
    “Which administrative office at Stephen F. Austin Elementary?” Martin asked.
    “Principal Doggett’s,” Sanchez said.
    Martin swiveled in his chair and looked out the window just as Doggett was speeding out of the central office parking lot.
    “And one other thing, Mr. Martin. I received an email from the Odessa Police Department this morning, asking for personal information on Tony Nail.”
    “Refresh my memory?” Martin said.
    “Head custodian at Stephen F. Austin,” Sanchez said.
    “Why’d OPD want that?”
    “Nail was arrested for murder yesterday. They tell me it looked like a drug deal gone bad. Said they had received a tip that he was in the area. Apparently he has a history we didn’t know about as thoroughly as we should have.”
    “Nail? Wait. Isn’t he the man we have who also ministers to the homeless over in West Odessa?”
    “That’s the word,” Sanchez said.

CHAPTER 7  
    A lex Wallace woke up in the seaside Chilean village of Valparaiso on the first full day of the second leg of